Actor doesn’t miss a beat
Actor keeps grounded by heading to the dance floor
Call it life imitating art. Or maybe art imitating life.
Whatever the case, actor John Boyega acknowledges there are some similarities between his career arc and that of the character he plays in the Star Wars franchise.
Finn, a former First Order stormtrooper who switched teams in 2015’ s The Force Awakens to join the Resistance and battle evil, emerged as one of the heroes in the new generation of Star Wars lore. He played a key role in destroying the First Order’s Starkiller Base, even if he was severely wounded in the process by villain Kylo Ren ( Adam Driver).
As Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens, Finn has recovered and is regarded as a hero in Resistance circles. This is certainly the view held by Rose, a young star- struck mechanic played by Kelly Marie Tran who teams up with Finn for most of the film.
“People know who he is now and give him some form of respect and he’s just like ‘ Oh cool, I like that,’ ” Boyega said. “So that’s something that is quite fun about it and something that kind of relates to real life in a sense. You know, you weren’t as well known before ( The Force Awakens), now you’re known for ( The Force Awakens) coming on to The Last Jedi. Everyone knows who you are. It’s the exact thing that’s happened with Finn. Now on the Resistance base, he’s a big deal.”
Finn was not Boyega’s first role, of course. In his native England, he first secured up- and- coming status after playing a young gang leader in the 2011 horror- comedy Attack the Block. He also had a recurring role as a U. S. drone pilot in 24: Live Another Day. But ever since Disney’s massive publicity machine kicked into gear to promote The Last Jedi earlier this year, Boyega’s star has been steadily on the rise, with media following his every move. He recently made headlines after tweeting that he may miss the Dec. 9 Hollywood premiere of Star Wars due to an Atlanta snowstorm, which was quickly followed up by confirmations by numerous outlets that his flight did indeed make it to L. A. on time for the red carpet ( even if his luggage didn’t.) He received a good deal of attention in mid- November when, during a roundtable interview with the Hollywood Reporter, he revealed for the first time that Prince Harry and Prince William had cameos in the Last Jedi. Footage of him paying homage to Michael Jackson with some fancy footwork on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, meanwhile, went viral in late November.
“I don’t really process it as an important thing in my head,” says Boyega, when asked how he is dealing with his rise to fame. “It’s just something that comes with the territory for me.”
“I dance a lot,” he adds. “I just like to have a little bit of a dance. I just do what I’d normally do.”
Speaking of choreography, the early trailers for The Last Jedi revealed that Finn will again be picking up a lightsaber, this time to battle his former stormtrooper commander Captain Phasma ( Gwendoline Christie). Boyega says getting these iconic scenes into proper fighting form is no small task. They may start like a “slow dance” but quickly increase in intensity as the day progresses.
“Once we got that fight, it just became ferocious,” he says. “It was just back and forth. We did a day or two doing that fight. The cameraman could follow us on a steady and then it turned the camera having to go on a track because we were fighting so fast and there were explosions going off. It was an adrenalin rush.”
Boyega will be seen engaging in another epic battle as one of the heroes in Pacific Rim Uprising, which pits pilot- controlled giant robots against massive sea creatures. But Boyega says he is interested in playing as many different roles as possible in the future. Since The Force Awakens, he seems to have chosen hi roles carefully, from the mysterious tech guru in the thriller The Circle to a conflicted and heroic security guard in Kathryn Bigelow’s harrowing Detroit. Both earned the actor rave reviews.
“I want to be in things that I like to watch,” he says. “I don’t like watching actors do the same thing in each project, you can lose a sense of motivation and drive and purpose for it all. To keep me on my toes and to keep me interested in all of this, I have to read a script that is different and collaborate with a director who knows what they’re doing.”
Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens on Friday.
I don’t really process it as an important thing in my head. It’s just something that comes with the territory for me.”
John Boyega